Part 3: The Roots of Anxiety and Overwhelm

A main source of anxiety is being preoccupied or focused on matters that are outside of your control.

Part 3:

[Some time ago, I shared Part 1 and Part 2 about anxiety’s roots – but the other Parts didn’t get published. Here is Part 3 and the rest to follow.]

We worry about those we love.

About 11 years ago, my mom came to live with my family under hospice care.  She had a glioblastoma brain tumor and she was no longer able to receive treatment for it because her body couldn’t take any more.

When my sister and I lobbied to bring her to Raleigh to be close to her community for the last 28 years or so (they had recently moved 5 hours away), I incorrectly presumed her situation was so dire, that she would be going to the Hospice facility nearby.

I learned that she would instead be coming to my house and I would be her main caretaker.  At the time, I had two young elementary kids, I ran a business I owned with my husband, and also managed his law firm’s administrative tasks. I had only recently moved back to Raleigh after 6 years away. I never had managed stress well prior to all of this.

Out of SOMEWHERE I mustered the strength and resolve to be there for my mom, to stay as present as possible with my kids, and to somehow keep our businesses going.  My sister, other family members, friends, as well as church and friends helped – immensely.

With our care (a whole other LONG and AMAZING story), my mom didn’t die in 2-4 weeks like they said she would.  She got *better and better* and eventually didn’t have a brain tumor on the CT Scans for a while.  She lived another 2.5 years.

AND I didn’t have a breakdown during that intense time.

Later though….it all caught up

Excruciating chronic pain, digestive issues, massive fatigue, sleeplessness, rashes, impatience, wacked-out hormonal issues (38 years old), and eventually dangerously high blood pressure.

Maybe you can relate to this chain of events:

Giant heavy, painful life event or injury that was outside of your control, you muster through it, all seems well, then wham-o, your body is breaking down from all directions, you cannot seem to recover or get traction on improving.

-You get injured again.  You start having a series of hard-to-pinpoint-the-cause symptoms. Your relationships seem strained – or explosive.

Your body and spirit are depleted; the anxiety ratchets up.

Maybe wonder when the next family member is going to have a crisis. Your adult child is suffering from depression.  Your teenager’s anxiety has him turning to smoking or pot to relax and you wonder what he will turn to next. Your spouse or partner’s emotional state is agitated in the political climate or by concerns for the economy.

And it all weighs heavily on you.

I get it. We worry about those we love. We feel them. 

Through the journey with my mom, I not only was physically drained, but I was also emotionally drained by my own grief and the regret my mom carried.

And I had been taking that on as my job to fix – my duty to commiserate. (I also thought I needed to save my kids from hardship, come up with solutions to my husband’s disenchanted state, etc…)

And then, in the midst of it, I learned something that gave me the springboard to CHANGE EVERYTHING.

Other people’s paths and life journeys are outside of our control.  

Of course, you “know” that.  I “knew” it too.  I wasn’t some control freak, right?
Right? Or was I?

Some of you may want to argue with me that we have control over our children’s suffering and it’s our JOB to take on their suffering.  Maybe you even believe that you’re a better parent because you suffer with your children.

To truly let go so that our bodies (health), minds (patterns), and souls are FREE from anxiety, requires that we first cultivate acceptance about what it is (and has been). Second, we must also replenish ourselves with foundational energy.  The things that have happened in our lives, especially traumatic events or emotionally painful relationships, drain us.  In our society, we have not grown up with effective ways to remedy that draining or depletion.

However, when you have a proven method for not only improving your foundational energy AND the support of someone who can assist you with clearing out the energy that got lodged as a result of traumatic events or painful relationships, there is a palpable and decisive shift.  When you have that shift, having a guide empowering you in this new territory is KEY.

Join my free Facebook group Loving Living FREEDOM to see if I can help you with that guidance.  It has been my honor and joy to do this for hundreds of clients in the last few years.

This is the time to change everything. If you choose…

[You can also contact me here to find out more about working with me intensively.]

Peace be with you,

Erin Tracy

*Previous sections of this post: Part 1, Part 2